Viṣṇujana: "Forgetfulness of this relationship by the atomic soul is the cause of one changing his position from one tree to another, or from one body to another."
Prabhupāda: Now here, that . . . he's . . . he's giving trouble to the friend. I am giving to my sincere friend Kṛṣṇa simply trouble. Just like a bird is flying from one tree to another. The friend bird is also there. He has no business, he has no interest to be there, because he is not eating anything from the tree. He has nothing to do. But because his friend is there, he goes. So we are changing our body as the bird, the changing from one tree to another. But Kṛṣṇa, the supreme bird, is also going with me.
Go on.
Viṣṇujana: "The jīva, soul, is struggling very hard in the tree of the material body. But as soon as he agrees to accept the other bird . . ."
Prabhupāda: That's all.
Viṣṇujana: ". . . as the supreme spiritual master . . ."
Prabhupāda: Then here is the solution. He's simply taking unnecessary trouble. Kṛṣṇa says that, "I'll supply you everything. There is no necessity of going from here to there." No. But I'm not accepting it. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). One who understands this, "How Kṛṣṇa is helping me, how He is my, the greatest well-wisher, friend," immediately we can stop all these problems of life and go back to Godhead, go back to home.
Viṣṇujana: "But as soon as he agrees to accept the other bird as the supreme spiritual master, as Arjuna has agreed to do, by voluntary surrender unto Kṛṣṇa for instruction, the subordinate bird immediately becomes free from all lamentation."
Prabhupāda: Yes. As Arjuna has accepted. Arjuna was talking with Kṛṣṇa as friend, but he has accepted. Although he is friend, he has accepted Him as spiritual master. The significance is that as soon as you accept somebody as spiritual master, you cannot argue. You have to accept. You have to accept. Therefore the selection of spiritual . . . must be very scrutinizing.
You cannot accept anyone as spiritual master. You must be very much satisfied that, "Here is a person who can solve the problems of my life." Just like Arjuna thought. He plainly said that, "The problem which is before me, I know, beyond You, besides You, nobody can make solution." That is the way of accepting spiritual master.
When one is fully convinced that, "Here is a person who can actually solve the problems of my life," then one should accept spiritual master. In the Hari-bhakti-vilāsa there is such process that one should accept a spiritual master after associating with him for some time. Similarly, the spiritual master also shall accept somebody as disciple after associating with him for some time, whether he is eligible or not. This is the process.
Go on.
Viṣṇujana: Twenty-three: "The soul can never be cut into pieces by any weapon, nor can he be burned by fire, nor moistened by water nor withered by the wind (BG 2.23)." Purport.
Prabhupāda: This is the distinction of the soul being spirit. You take anything of this material world, they can be burned. It is the question of temperature only. Even iron is being burned, any metal, any hard thing, stone is being burned, everything is being burned. But here it is said that soul cannot be burned. So does it mean that it is stronger than iron and stone?
But it is very fragmental, minute, atomic portion. But it cannot be burned. So all these symptoms . . . cannot be burn . . . burned, cannot be cut into pieces. So here the Māyāvādī theory will fail. If the soul cannot be cut into pieces, then how the soul has become enwrapped with māyā? They give the example, ghaṭākāśa-poṭākāśa. Of course, they say that it is covered—it is not cut into pieces.
But the soul is separated, I mean to say, a separate identity constitutionally.